Don’t Get Electronic Credit Card Statements
How many emails have you received, meant to respond, but then forgot about? Exactly. It’s not that you don’t mean to act on them, it’s just that you had a few minutes to check your email, saw something important but couldn’t act on it right away so you put it aside. The problem is when you get the electronic statement from your credit card because when you forget to schedule a payment, it costs you money. That offer of $5 to go all electronic, while good, may be a losing proposition.
Consider that when you get a statement in the mail, it’s something tangible you can leave on your desk, so it can serve as a more physical reminder to schedule your payments. Now, if you have some sort of autopay feature that knows how much your statement balance is then you should take the $5 and run. Otherwise, just keep getting the paper statements and shred/recycle them after six months.
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7 Comments - Share Your Thoughts
I am much more likely to (and have done so in the past) misplace a paper statement than electronic. Until I’ve made the payment corresponding to the statement notification, the email remains unread in a folder in Thunderbird, as a reminder.
This, coupled with setting up scheduled transactions in Quicken, has done tremendous amounts for me in terms of handling my payment schedules. I’ve found myself twice in the last 3 months rummaging through the house for a paper statement because Quicken said I was due to pay it and I thought I’d lost track of the envelope. In one case, I did find the envelope. In the other case, the credit card company just hadn’t sent it to me yet.
It’s just too easy for me to lose track of the paperwork. My desk is small and cluttered, and I have 2 cats that think they own every square inch of surface area they can find.
One time management tip I’ve heard is to create folders in your email called -Action, -Reading. -Waiting For, etc. Then drag emails like credit card statements to the -Action folder. When you have time to pay bills, just look in the -Action folder.
I’m also looking into setting up reminders in Yahoo calendar to remind me to pay bills.
Or you can set up rules in your e-mail program to shuttle the important e-mails to another folder.
I’m with Andy… I misplace or forget about snail mail at least as often as e-mail.
this is exactly why I flag all important emails and I’ve conditioned myself to double check any flagged emails.
Carnival of Personal Finance #53
Welcome to the anniversary edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance! What a year it has been. The first Carnival of Personal Finance was posted on June 20, 2005. To celebrate the Carnival’s first birthday, I asked participants to submit two…
Honestly, the exact opposite is true for me. If it arrives by email (and isn’t from a mailing list…those are handled seperately), it is either deleted or acted-upon within 5 minutes of me first seeing it in my mailbox. But if it arrives by postal mail, it could be many months before I look at it again. Honestly, with the exception of christmas cards and items I’ve actually _ordered_, I’d probably be better off putting all my paper mail directly into the trash on arrival…it’d keep the apartment cleaner, and since all my bills are paid electronically, it wouldn’t actually impact my financial situation at all. Every few months, I go through the piles of accumulated snail mail, making extra-double-sure that nothing important is in them (nothing important ever is), and then toss them. It usually fills four or five large garbage bags, and my place is always much cleaner afterward.
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